Barack Obama urges Donald Trump to ‘stand up’ to Russian Federation

Obama’s meeting on Friday with the leaders of Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Spain was possibly his last in such a setting before he leaves office.

Had Clinton won the presidency, Obama could have evoked a transfer of US power to a known quantity who has largely shared his approach to Europe, global cooperation and governance.

Air Force One touched down Wednesday evening in Berlin after a short flight from Greece. While in Germany, Obama plans to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Obama has called Merkel one of his closest partners as president.

Obama seemed skeptical that “the new prescriptions being offered” would satisfy voters’ restlessness. Mr Obama also encouraged leaders to continue efforts to expand information sharing throughout the European Union to help disrupt terror attacks. President Barack Obama toasts with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, right, and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, left, during the start of a State Dinner at the Presidential Mansion, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016.

The speech, which anchors Obama’s multi-nation farewell tour to meet more than two dozen foreign leaders, including top US allies in Europe and Asia-Pacific nations, comes against a very different backdrop than the one Obama and his aides had envisioned.

And as Obama completes his last world tour, he’s been thrust into the unexpected role of Trump translator to anxious USA allies.

Obama says increasingly people feel disconnected from their government and institutions.

At home, Obama’s party is split as it tries to come to terms with Trump’s win.

However, coupled with advances in technology, part of the effect of globalisation has been an increase in feelings of inequality, with smaller workforces being used to produce goods and jobs and manufacturing moving overseas, he said.

“Because our democracies are inclusive, we are able to welcome people, and refugees in need to our country’s and nowhere have we seen that compassion more evident than here in Greece”, he said after visiting the Acropolis hill in Athens.

“When we see people, global elites, wealthy corporations seemingly living by a different set of rules, avoiding taxes, manipulating loopholes. this feeds a profound sense of injustice”, he added.

Rather, he said it demanded a “course correction”.

US President Barack Obama was on Wednesday wrapping up the Greek leg of a farewell European trip with a visit to the Acropolis and an eagerly-awaited speech on democracy before heading to Berlin. “We have very different points of view but American democracy is bigger than any one person”. He said that’s as long as people retain faith in democracy and don’t waver from democratic principles.

When your side loses, you accept the decision of the people, he said, vowing to do all he could to enable a smooth transition to the Trump era.

He said that democracy can be “slow, it can be frustrating, it can be hard, it can be messy”, but that ultimately it is “better than the alternatives”.

“Presidential elections always turn on personalities, they turn on how campaigns are run, they turn on natural desires for change”, he said, not mentioning Clinton by name. Betty Kazakopoulos, a PR consultant in her 60s, said Obama was “a man I admire”. While it is clear that the divide in this country is painful and steep – whereby our politics may prevent the coming together on agreements of policy and philosophy – we still have more in common as a people than we do not.

Obama said the Greeks can not be expected to bear the bulk of the burden on their own.

On his final visit to Europe as president, Obama has chosen Greece, the “cradle of democracy”, as the place to deliver a speech addressing the uncertainties that have led to the rise of populists like Donald Trump.

Obama has sought to reaffirm during his presidency that the USA commitment to Europe is enduring. Trump has openly toyed with the notion of not coming to the aide of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members under assault from foreign powers, as the pact would demand.